Mediating Role of Sense of Belonging between Diffusive Identity Style and Personal Accountability: Moderation by Friends' Support in Pakistan

Abstract

The present study purposed moderating the role of friends’ support for the direct and indirect effect of diffusive identity style on personal accountability mediated thorough a sense of belonging. The sample included 500 university students (Male = 244 and Female = 256), age ranging from 18-25 years (M±SD = 20.35±1.54) from different Pakistani universities including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Mandi Bahauddin. Data was collected on Identity Styles (Berzonsky, 2013), Sense of Belonging (Hagerty & Patusky, 1995), Sense of Responsibility (Mergler, 2016) and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988) along with a detailed demographic sheet. The purposed mediated moderation was tested using Process Macro (Hayes, 2013). The results showed that the effect of diffusive identity style on personal accountability is mediated through sense of belonging-psychological measures. Additionally, results showed that an indirect effect through a mediator is moderated by friends’ support. With low level of friends’ support, the effect of diffusive identity style through a sense of belonging is non-significant but as friends’ support increases, diffusive identity contributes towards a sense of belonging-psychological measures resulting in decreased personal accountability. It is recommended that any intervention involving friends support shall be accounted for individuals’ own identity style.